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Monthly Archives: September 2017

Designing a cover. Do you want a tantalizing scene of the fantasy word? Your name is larger print that the title? Or a half-naked hunk?

These are a few thoughts that went into the design of the cover for First Change: Legends From The Eyrie.

What made things more challenging was that this was the fifth volume set in the world of the dragshi. For those who haven’t followed them, the dragshi are more than just a man or woman, but two beings—one human, the other a dragon. The pair share one body in space and time and are able to change forms with the other at will. But be warned, a dragon form comes with more than just the freedom of the sky.

Unlike the four full-length novels which recounted the tales of the trader girl Anastasia and the Dragshi Lord Branin Llewlyn, First Change is a collection of several novellas and short stories. None of the tales are related other than they all take place in the world of the dragon shifters. The events take place in a different era, with different characters. A cover design could use elements from all the stories or from just one. In the end, Fire and Ice was used as the basis for the cover design. The setting of the Nerelan equivalent of the Far East, a beautiful empress, and the green token that determined her fate were the elements selected. And so without more ado, here is the cover for First Change: Legends From the Eyrie. And thanks to Fantasia Frog Designs for creating it.

For more information on the legends of the dragshi told within First Change, click on the cover.

I don’t know about you but I am not a fanatical housecleaner. Growing up on a farm my mantra was clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be lived in. Now I don’t’ mean real dirt (although the red clay from the fields loved to be tracked into the kitchen no matter how many times you wiped your feet) it was more of a state of mind. Later, running several businesses while working full time insured the mantra was kept when I became an adult and had my own house.

Writers have a lot of digital housecleaning they need to do. Websites, blogs, backups, promotion schedules.